The Newbury College men's basketball team stopped a six game skid defeating Mitchell College, 64-58, in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) action, Saturday evening. Junior guard Tim Young (Brockton, Mass.) became the fourth player in the history of the men's basketball program to register 1,000 career points, tallying 10 on the day.
Young entered Saturday afternoon's matinee against the Mariners with 991 points in his three year career wearing green and gold. Strong Mariner defense limited him to just two points in the first half but he was not going to be denied of the opportunity of registering the elusive career milestone on his home court.
Four minutes into the second period, the crowd erupted when Young launched a trey from the top of the key to climb within five points of career point 1,000. Moments later he continued to inch closer to his goal when a technical foul on Mitchell senior forward Alex Vess (Middletown, Conn.) sent him to the charity stripe. In his only trip to the line of the game, Young knocked down both free throw attempts to give the Nighthawks the five point lead at the time.
Two possessions later, following a Mariners turnover, sophomore guard Steve Rosemond (Everett, Mass.) found a wide open Young in the nearside corner in front of the Nighthawk bench for the junior's 1,001st career point.
However, it was not all about Young. Early on in the contest when it appeared as if Mitchell was going to dominate the offensive glass all day after ripping down back-to-back offensive boards, senior forward Jason Marshall (Fairburn, Ga.) stepped up his game. Marshall was a force in the post, ripping down seven first half rebounds before picking up his second foul midway through the half. He finished the game two points shy of his third double-double of the year, notching eight points while ripping down eight boards.
While the first half belonged to Marshall, the second half went to the two Brockton natives: Young and sophomore Kwame Thompson (Brockton, Mass.). Thompson registered a team-high 11 points in the second half; but the play of the day game came when he picked the pocket of Mariner sophomore forward Joshua Ford (Jersey City, N.J.) with 38 seconds left on the clock.
At the time, momentum appeared to have shifted towards Mitchell as the Mariners were in the midst of an 11-2 run with three minutes remaining. Senior guard Paul Jefferson (Waterbury, Conn.) knocked down a long range trey to pull the Mariners to within one. Moments later, Jefferson picked off Rosemond for his first steal of the game as the Mariners looked to be in the process of making their comeback.
But Thompson stayed composed on defense. After knocking the ball away form Ford, Thompson was poised to take it back down the court for the fast-break bucket before being fouled Mitchell sophomore guard Alex Del Rio (New Britain, Conn.). Thompson sealed the six point Nighthawk victory knocking down three of four form the charity stripe in crunch time, with under 40 seconds left to play.
Newbury improves to 5-10 with the win and 2-5 in conference action while Mitchell falls to 5-9 and 3-5 in the NECC. The Nighthawks look to continue their new streak when they travel up Route 3 to Nashua, N.H. on Tuesday January 24th for a 7:30 p.m. tilt with conference foe Daniel Webster College.
Game Notes:
As a team, Newbury was nearly perfect from the charity stripe, knocking down 13-of-14 attempts…Sophomore guard Kwame Thompson was five-of-six while Tim Young, Cameron Owen, Jason Marshall and Dallas Serrano were all two-for-two from the line…Young joins Newbury graduates Arch Mitchell, Kevin Cleveland and Walky Magloire to have reached the 1,000th point milestone.